Women in Taufiq Rafat’s Poetry: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Wedding in the Flood and Kitchens
Keywords:
Taufiq Rafat, Wedding in the Flood, Kitchen, Postcolonial FeminismAbstract
Post-colonialism and feminism are among the most trending critical theories that this century has inherited from its predecessor. In recent times, the acceptability of both genres has inspired a lot of writing and research. With the passage of time and the spread of education in formerly colonial societies, especially among women, feminism has begun to take roots. This combination of postcolonial and feminism has resulted in the development of Postcolonial Feminism. The demands and directions of postcolonial feminism are different from mainstream Western feminism. This paper is a study of Taufiq Rafat’s poems, Wedding in the Flood and Kitchens. Rafat’s poems are a realistic delineation of life in the milieu where he was born and brought up. In his stories in verse, we find ample representation of the women of Pakistan. The feminine characters in the poems under discussion are typical of women in a postcolonial society. Therefore, they have been selected for analysis in this paper. This analysis is based on the thoughts promoted by postcolonial feminism in which women do not seek worldwide acceptance, but demand only to be accepted as living beings. It highlighted how lack of education and awareness has affected the approach of society toward women. It also brought out how baseless feminine stereotypes was generated. The poems sought a tangible solution to the problems of women in Pakistani society.
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